Women's Shelter Gets A New Home, But Several Volunteers Won't Follow

December 09, 1993|By Jerry Thomas, Tribune Staff Writer.

Late last week, before the frost melted from the tidy lawns on East Sunnyside Avenue in Libertyville, a group of volunteers gathered at a home that for 18 months had served as the Lake County Haven, a shelter for women and their children.

The items were placed in a long van and moved five blocks away to a new and larger home on Grant Place that was purchased by the Haven to house more homeless women and their children.

But the Haven, which was established by members of the First Presbyterian Church in Lake Forest, will be leaving behind more than just a piece of property. About 15 volunteers do not plan to relocate with the agency, mainly because they do not like the way the 11-member board is operating the Haven.

The split, some volunteers say, occurred when the board abruptly fired its executive director, Della Schiesher, without informing the volunteers or the families living in the Haven.

"It takes a lot to turn off this many volunteers who will not have anything to do with the Haven anymore because of the way it is being run," said Marsha Baldacci, a former volunteer from Vernon Hills.

Baldacci, who became a volunteer after a Haven board member made a plea for help at her church, said she told board members they made a poor decision when they dismissed Schiesher last month.

"They have any right to hire and fire who they please," said Baldacci, who says she recruited some 25 committed volunteers, including a counselor and doctor. "It is the manner in which it is done. When it affects the house and the program, it is not fine with me anymore. It makes me mad."

Board members say Schiesher was dismissed because of some internal problems. "We decided to have two co-directors," said Peg Bradley, vice president of the board. "That is a cost-saving measure."

Schiesher said she does not know why she was let go. Before she was dismissed, Schiesher, who earned $13 an hour, was under the impression the board was seeking a part-time person to help her run the shelter.

"They could not find any fault with the job I had done," said Schiesher, who noted that the board focused more on fundraising than the actual operation of the shelter.

Because Schiesher was close to many of the volunteers, Mike Gretz, the president of the board, said some volunteers criticized the board's action as being unfair.

"Many people are extremely loyal to Ms. Schiesher, and they were very upset with the change, and that is understandable," Bradley said. "That is why there is so much uproar and controversy right now. And that happens in every operation."

The dispute, at least for now, appears to have had only a positive impact on the county's growing homeless problem.

Advocates for the homeless say at least 3,000 homeless people live in Lake County and about 40 percent are women and children.

Since Schiesher's dismissal, disgruntled volunteers and Schiesher have been meeting to discuss establishing another shelter for women in Lake County based on the Haven concept.

"There are 12 people committed to starting a new shelter," Baldacci said. "The Haven started with just two."

At the Grant Place property, a four-bedroom duplex with a massive back yard, Bradley and volunteers were putting the finishing touches on the house, cleaning blinds in the kitchen, constructing shelves in the two-car garage. For those gathered at Grant Place, the controversy was left at the old site.

"What impressed me more than anything else is that the arrangement is not only temporary, but continuously positive," said volunteer Tom Farley, a Lake Forest consultant and owner of a retail store in Lake Bluff who helped construct the shelves.